2011 Aussie Millions Event #4 Day 1: Soren Blanner Leads Shootout Final Table, Dunwoodie Wins Event #3
Event #4 of the 2011 Aussie Millions kicked off on Tuesday in Melbourne, Australia at Crown Casino. The $1,100 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout was the first event of its kind on the Aussie Millions schedule, so there would be no defending champion entering the field. Two rounds were played on Tuesday, and plenty of well-known pros came out to try and win their table and advance.
Annette Obrestad, Scott Montgomery, James Akenhead, JP Kelly, Jonathan Karamalikis, Neil Channing, Event #1 winner Martin Drewe, and Jeff Sarwer were among the 158 players who entered the field. A prize pool of AUD$158,000 was created and first place will be taking home AUD$37,920.
Charlie Combes was the first player to advance to the second round of play, defeating Michael Greco, Raj Ramakrishnan, and Dominik Nitsche, among others at his table. In all, 18 players advanced to the second round, and also into the money. Among those were Ben Delaney, Neil Channing, Dean Nyberg, Daniel Neilson, and Toby Lewis.
After just over three hours of play, eight players had been eliminated and a final table was set. Soren Blanner from Denmark will lead the field into final-table play on Wednesday with 334,900 in chips. Right behind him is James Keys from England with 280,700. England is well-represented at the final table with five players. Australia is next with three, while Korea has one spot, and, of course, there is Denmark.
The final table kicks off at 4 p.m. local time and you can catch all the action on the PokerNews Live Reporting blog as a winner is crowned. It will be the first Aussie Millions win for one of the players; no one has an Aussie Millions victory.
Event #3: $1,100 Pot-Limit Omaha
Not only did Event #4 begin on Tuesday, but Event #3 crowned a winner. The final table of the $1,100 Pot-Limit Omaha event kicked off at 4 p.m. local time when the final nine players took their seats in hopes of taking home the gold ring and AUD$37,750 first-place prize. Haibo Chu may have gone into the final table as the chip leader, but he exited early, in eighth place, right after Antoine Bechara hit the rail in ninth.
Next to go was Mel Judah in seventh. He moved all-in preflop and was called by Harry Demetriou and Aarno Kivelio. Demetriou and Kivelio checked down the board of J♦4♠10♠8♣7♥ and Demetriou showed K♠K♥10♣6♣, which was good against both opponents. Judah tossed his cards into the muck before anyone could see them, saying, "I had queens." He took home AUD$6,040 for his effort.
Michael Guttman exited in sixth place, followed by Aarno Kivelio and Joel Gaffney, who were both knocked out in the same hand. The exit of Michael Konnecke in third place left Harry Demetriou and Sean Dunwoodie heads up for the title and AUD$37,750.
The two went into heads-up play almost event in chips, but it didn't take long for them all to go in the middle. After a raise preflop by Dunwoodie and a call by Demetriou, the A♠7♣5♣ fell on the flop. Demetriou led out for 96,000 and Dunwoodie flat-called. The 2♠ hit the turn and Demetriou checked to Dunwoodie who tossed out a bet of 250,000. Demetriou moved all-in and Dunwoodie snap-called tabling A♦K♣10♦5♦ for two pair. Demetriou held A♥9♥8♥6♣ for a straight draw, but the 3♥ on the river was no help and he was eliminated in second place.
"I turned up yesterday, after a couple of hours sleep, hungover and thought that I'd made a bad decision to play but had the feeling yesterday that I could win. Then I saw the final table and figured it was the toughest final table they could put together and maybe if I got lucky I could get third, so I'm very happy to have won," Dunwoodie said soon after receiving his gold ring.
There are plenty of events left at the Aussie Millions, so keep it locked to PokerNews as the Live Reporting Team will be bringing you all the action that comes out of the Crown Poker Room, and as always, follow us on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.
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